Elon Musk Wants His Legacy To Be Advancing Civilization, Says Without 'Truth-Seeking AI,' The Future Could Be 'Dangerous'

In a recent interview, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk shared what he hopes will eventually become his legacy: helping civilization progress.

Alongside his ambitious objectives for Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink, Musk stressed a mounting priority: developing artificial intelligence that is "maximally truth-seeking," which he called essential for AI safety.

What Happened: Speaking to Lara Trump on Fox News, Musk listed a series of projects currently in development, including unsupervised self-driving cars that will make manually driven cars seem like "a horse", "robot buddies" that will assist humans in all kinds of tasks, space travel to enable the establishment of a "a self-sustaining city on Mars", and brain-computer interfaces that will "enable people who are blind to see" and "enable somebody who has a severed spinal column to walk again".

But he also issued a stark warning about AI: "The most important thing for AI safety is maximally truth-seeking AI… and if we don't, it will be very dangerous."

Why It Matters: Musk's statements come amid a series of controversies across sectors where he plays a central role.

NASA is about to see a budget cut of $6 billion, in line with Musk's Mars-focused aspirations, with multiple projects in space science, Earth science, and mission support divisions under threat.

On the other hand, a new study showed that emissions from dying satellites may cause serious environmental damage, just as SpaceX added 28 more Starlink satellites to its burgeoning megaconstellation.

Meanwhile, despite Musk's comments about AI safety, xAI is under fire in Memphis for deploying several methane gas turbines allegedly without permits at its supercomputer site.

Previously, Musk had pledged to donate $6 Billion to end world hunger if the World Food Programme could explain how the money would be spent, but did not make good on his promise despite being provided with a detailed plan.

Read Next: